Foley opposes ban on Israel trips
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley told The AJN on Wednesday, “I do not support a ban on trips to Israel,” following a report that a motion seeking to ban Labor MPs, officials and Young Labor members from accepting subsidised trips to Israel will be presented at next month’s NSW conference.
NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley told The AJN on Wednesday, “I do not support a ban on trips to Israel,” following a report that a motion seeking to ban Labor MPs, officials and Young Labor members from accepting subsidised trips to Israel will be presented at next month’s NSW conference.
According to the report in The Sydney Morning Herald, the proposal – put forward by the Labor Friends of Palestine group – states that while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government “continues settlements, refuses a Palestinian state [and] brutally mistreats Arab residents of the West Bank”, no ALP officer, MP or Young Labor member can “accept a paid trip from the Israel Lobby”.
“To do so in the circumstances is an insult to the Australian community who support our party,” the motion says.
However, opposing the proposed ban, Foley said, “I welcome open dialogue among all parties in the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.”
Meanwhile, a senior Labor figure told The AJN the motion “won’t even get up” and “won’t be acceptable to anybody”. The source said the next step may be a watered-down resolution that seeks to require Labor delegates on such trips to spend 50 per cent of their time in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.
Describing the proposal as “counter to promoting dialogue”, Labor MLC and NSW Parliamentary Friends of Israel deputy chair Walt Secord said, “As a member of a progressive centre left political party, I believe the only way to resolve the Israel-Palestinian question is through dialogue, debate and discussion; it is not by dictating who political leaders can meet.”
He added, “As a matter of principle, when I visit Israel, I always go to the Palestinian territories to speak to Arab leaders. I also speak to Israeli political figures on the left and right spectrum in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.”
Colin Rubenstein – executive director of the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), which organises a number of fact-finding trips to the region – said the proposal was part of a “larger disingenuous campaign to stop members of the ALP from learning about the genuine complexities of the Middle East from people who prefer ignorance and simplistic slogans to informed debate”.
“All our groups to the Middle East spend time with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and are allowed to draw their own conclusions, as any participant will attest,” Rubenstein said.
“Hopefully, sensible ALP members will see through and reject this discriminatory proposal directed at preventing ALP members from becoming more knowledgeable and informed about a key international issue.”
The sentiment was echoed by NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff, who said, “All Board of Deputies programs include visits to the West Bank, and participants are briefed by senior Palestinian officials. This gives Australian delegations an opportunity to see the situation first-hand and draw their own conclusions.”
Australia-Israel Labor Dialogue NSW convenor Greg Holland said the proposal was “an outrageous infringement of an individual’s right to travel and learn about the world”, and “un-Australian”.
“Our great Labor Party has never imposed such a controlling and totalitarian imposition on its people. The freedom to choose one’s own travel plans is a fundamental human right,” he said.
EVAN ZLATKIS
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